Smart innovations at Computex 2014

Computex, the annual showcase of gadgets, electronics and PCs is well underway and Hitesh Raj Bhagat is roaming the show floors in Taipei.

Computex, the annual showcase of gadgets, electronics and PCs is well underway and Hitesh Raj Bhagat is roaming the show floors in Taipei. These are a few of the things that caught his attention right away.

Asus Zenfone 4

Asus has refreshed its Zenfone 4 with a bigger display and better specifications. The phone will be a direct competitor to the Moto E in terms of price and features. It has a 4.5-inch display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and runs the latest Android 4.4 OS. It is powered by a 1.2Ghz dual core Intel processor with 1GB RAM, 8GB storage and a 1,750mAh battery. Going above the Moto E, it has an 8MP autofocus rear camera and a front camera. We expect it will be available in India within the next two months at an estimated price of Rs 8,000.

Ultra small form factor PCs

As computers get smaller, a lot of new uses can come up - for instance, they can be used for home entertainment, portable PC applications (mounted directly behind a monitor), in-car applications and so on. There would be some compromises in terms of performance but general computing tasks can be easily done. Some of them have fanless designs, so they can also be used where whisper quiet operation is required. Computex saw various manufacturers launch their own ultra small form factor PC's that should arrive in India in the coming months.

Anti-microbial Glass

Since touchscreen devices are meant to be touched, they often accumulate a lot of microorganism over time. Plus the warm environments in which phones are usually kept in (pockets) means that it's ideal for bacterial growth. Corning's solution uses silver ions built into the glass - it's not a nano-coating or a layer of some sort that wears out over time. Instead Corning claims that the Antimicrobial functions works for the lifetime of the device. The antimicrobial glass prevents growth of algae, mold, mildew, fungi, and bacteria on the display and is tough and scratch resistant like any corning glass.

Asus Transformer Book V

Probably the most impressive product unveiled by Asus is the Transformer Book V (5). Named so because it can 'transform' between 5 different devices: It can be an Android smartphone, Android tablet, Android laptop, Windows tablet or Windows laptop. You can also share data between devices. The smartphone part has a 5-inch screen, 64-bit Intel Atom quad core processor, 2GB RAM, 8MP PixelMaster rear camera (Asus' new camera tech that uses pixel upsampling for sharper images) and up to 64GB storage. The tablet has a 12.5-inch IPS HD touchscreen, Windows 8.1, Intel low power processor, 4GB RAM and 128GB storage.

Acer Liquid Leap SmartWatch

Acer is the latest company to jump onto the wearable tech bandwagon - and this is the product they are showcasing - the Liquid Leap Smartwatch. It's a lightweight device that looks like any other smartband but it also has a tiny, touch-enabled single colour OLED display. It can do all the usual stuff like track your steps, sleep patterns, tell the time and so on. In addition it can also perform smartwatch functions of incoming call, SMS and mail notifications. Acer claims that the Liquid Leap will offer a battery life of up to 7 days on a single charge - better than most other smartwatches available today. Obviously, it needs to be paired with a phone over Bluetooth and at the moment it only works with Acer's Liquid Jade phone with no support for non-Acer smartphones.

3D Motion & Depth Sensing in Laptops

This concept is not entirely new - Kinect and other similar systems were introduced a while back - but to shrink that entire depth sensing system down to fit inside a laptop screen is a feat. HP has already launched a few laptops that integrate the Leap Motion system in a few of their laptops, but now more and more manufacturers are integrating these technologies in their laptops. This opens up some new possibilities like with casual gaming (as was being demonstrated) and gesture control of the laptop.

Acer Switch 10

With this new device, Acer seems to have married the traits of a hybrid device (removable display) with a convertible (360-degree rotating screen). So while the Switch 10 has a great screen, good quality keyboard, full Windows 8.1 and so on - the screen attaches to the dock magnetically. And it clamps on tight with either the display facing you or away from you. This means that you can still use all the different modes of a convertible (laptop, tent, tablet, viewer) but the keyboard always faces up. And just carrying the tablet part is a lot lighter - the best of both worlds!

Wireless + USB storage

This points to a new trend; since a lot of devices do not have expandable storage (but they do have WiFi), the storage can be moved to an external WiFi device and accessed via an app. We've seen some iterations of this from Kingston and Seagate but there are some new innovations showcased at Computex. For instance, you can now have expandable WiFi storage - it doesn't have any flash memory of its own, but you can add up to 32/64GB using micro SD cards. Another dongleshaped device with a built in battery had a USB 3 port. When plugged in, it functions just like a USB 3.0 drive (but also charges the internal battery). Thereafter, it creates its own WiFi network so that you can access the storage remotely.

Laptops with 4K Displays

4k-display haven been around for Television from the past few years. However, 4k displays on laptops were another new trend at Computex. Asus announced its Transformer Book T300 Chi that has a detachable 12.5-inch display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels - Asus calls it the world's thinnest, 12.5-inch detachable laptop. Gigabyte also showcased its 13.9-inch laptop that has a resolution of 3200 x 1800 pixels display called the Aorus X3.